Good morning. Wado. Tansi. Boujou. Bonjour.
My name is Denise Henning and I'm president and vice-chancellor of the University College of the North.
I first want to speak about the KIP dollars, the knowledge infrastructure program, where $8 million was allocated to University College of the North. I want to point out, however, that 70% of the dollars.... We are the only institution that is advocating for and putting those dollars into first nations communities, thereby expanding our regional centre model of directly impacting the communities of the students, not only meeting them where they are academically, but also meeting them where they are demographically, and therefore keeping them within their communities to get the support from family and community.
In regard to the lack of increase in funding through federal dollars to the provincial governments to provide for infrastructure, maintenance, support, and upgrading, I am concerned about the impact this will have on a deficit for deferred maintenance in terms of the dollars that are being put into building versus the dollars that are there to maintain.
The second point I'd like to make, which was referred to by my previous colleagues, is about the 2% cap of INAC's student success program dollars. This directly impacts University College of the North. In the region we serve, the northern Manitoba area, 72% of our population is aboriginal. Eighty-nine percent of our student population are aboriginal people, and those dollars have a direct impact on them. With the highest birth rate and the fastest growing population being in the aboriginal communities, this particularly impacts Manitoba as a province, but also Canada, in that we are trying to meet the needs of those students directly to provide a healthy, talented, and skilled labour force as well as increasing the capacity for other students like me who are first nations and have met with different impacts from our lived experience.
It's very important that we understand that those wait lists translate to a decreased labour force, as well as impacting the ability for students to go to school, which leads to the third point that I want to talk about, which is the CCL dollars and the Millennium Foundation dollars.
With the Millennium Foundation dollars there was an ability for most post-secondary educational institutions to provide funding for students who were falling through the gaps because of those wait lists that were in regard to the INAC dollars. The funding for community colleges, polytechnicals, and university colleges and the debate between the universities' share of the pie for research dollars has an impact on the University College of the North in relation to providing northern solutions to northern issues.
Many times, as you are probably aware, decisions are made at the table by people who have no understanding or knowledge of what life is like in the north and the expensive living environment that we have. As a result, the decrease in the foundation dollars through these two programs has impacted us in real ways.
UCN is providing solutions through programs like our Kenanow bachelor of education program, where we are the only institution that I'm aware of.... We had 200 applications in the first week of advertising our program, and we've had 100% retention from the first year to the second year, thus subsequently providing for the needs of education in the north, the Northwest Territories, and far northern areas of Canada.
Secondly, the research dollars impact on our ability to deliver in the crisis in health care and the health care needs in northern Manitoba, where 84% of our graduates in our health studies area are staying in the north and providing for the deficit in doctors.
Our law enforcement programs understand how they're impacting on and reducing the gang intervention, the gang violence that's going on amongst the aboriginal population.
Also, 39% of the applied research that is going on in colleges comes directly from industry, and that allows us to have a greater impact on the economic development of smaller communities.
I thank you very much for allowing us to come to speak with you today.